If the classic song "Eye of Tiger" doesn't give you goosebumps, make you want to jump into the ring, and after 12 rounds come back to the love of your life with two black eyes, well then feel free to stop reading here and now. But if you happened to be growing up in the eighties and nineties, we'd find it hard to believe that the Italian stallion from Philadelphia leaves you indifferent; after all, it's quite likely you followed his strenuous career during your childhood.

Playtech knows what players want, and their bet on Stallone's most famous alter ego from the movies (sorry Rambo) is sure to pay off. However, slot machines with movie licenses should always be treated with a healthy dose of caution; one needs to hope that the developers treat the game fairly and don't make the slot machine just "another run-of-the-mill machine" with visuals from the movie. So, what about this one? Well, we'd say they succeeded, at least partially.

But it's not a clear-cut win, and for a few rounds the result was far from clear. But in the end, ROCKY prevailed and at the end what remains is the good feeling from a pleasant game. But if one were to compare this game to, say, KONG, then we'd find it unlikely that ROCKY would be the winner.

A slot machine with the perfect retro feels

Let's start by describing the visuals of the ROCKY slot machine. Playtech knows how to make nice games, but has also made a few with lacklustre visuals. Luckily, ROCKY is in the former category. Even though the visuals are not super-modern, they are a perfect fit to the nostalgic mood of the eighties. It's quite rare to feel something positive just by looking at individual symbols, but the designers managed to achieve just that here. You'll find all the well-known characters from the movies here. Perhaps the only one that's missing is the trainer, Mickey.

We were also pleasantly surprised that the designers replaced the classic 10,J,Q,K and A symbols with R,O,C,K,Y. One interesting change is the fact that if you manage to get this combination on the reels in a single round, you get an extra prize - 5 times the original bet.

We were a bit surprised that the game lacks music of any kind. The Rocky theme is in the game, but you need to click on information in order to hear it. But the hit by Survivor mentioned in the introduction would perhaps do an even better job at capturing our attention. But it's not such a big deal after all, the other sounds are well connected to the movie and the boxing environment. We admit that, for instance, we found it entertaining to simply just spin the reels in order to hear Rocky hits the punching bag.

The bonus games in the Rocky slot machine are worth a shot

Let's move on to the bonus games. Before you ask, of course the slot machine offers its own bonus games. We already mentioned the ROCKY sign, but what about Wild and Scatter symbols? The Wild symbol, depicting Rocky himself, as usual replaces any other symbol with the exception of the Scatter symbol, Bonus symbol, and the letters in ROCKY. But if you manage to get 5 Wild symbols on the reels, you win the Jackpot.

The Scatter symbol is the sign "Rocky, Italian Stallion"; if you manage to get 3, 4 or 5 of these on the reels, you immediately get 15, 20 or 25 free spins. During these free spins you are furthermore playing with a 2x winning multiplier. Moreover, if you manage to get another 3 or more scatter symbols during the free spins, you win an additional 15 free spins.

The last special function is also the most well-done one, both graphically and in terms of gameplay: it is the Bonus. To get it, you need to get the Bonus symbols on the first and fifth reel in a single round; here, these symbols are represented by boxing gloves. If that happens, you are immediately transported into a boxing match. First, you will choose an opponent from Rocky's three legendary opponents: Apollo Creed, Ivan Drago and Clubber Lang. After that you'll watch a 12-round game, which you then unfortunately can't influence in any way. You get a win whenever Rocky wins a round. If Rocky manages to KO his opponent earlier than in the 12th round, all rounds up to the twelfth are considered won by Rocky.

So, is Rocky worth playing?

What's our final verdict? Well, it's a win on points. Rocky is an entertaining slot machine with pleasant retro visuals, which is certainly worth a try. Play the Rocky slot machine for free, directly on our website – no registration needed. You'll see whether it also brings back pleasant memories from your childhood, like it did for us.